chapter 41
...................................................................................................................................................POLITICAL THEORY
AND CULTURAL
STUDIES
...................................................................................................................................................jodi dean
It is clear today that culture and economy have both so thoroughly
transformed politics that it becomes diYcult to recall when they did
not.
Sheldon Wolin, ‘‘What Time Is It?’’1 Introduction
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
A central question of political theory is ‘‘what is the political?’’ Political theorists
pose this question in various ways. Some approach the political from what they
understand to be beyond politics, as in divine or natural principles, say, or
- I am grateful to Paul Passavant and Bonnie Honig for critical readings of earlier drafts of this
chapter.